Everyone jokes about how Bing is just a Google impostor and that Yahoo! is abandoned, but it’s time to move past the stereotypes and see what these search engines can really do. Let’s compare the features of the biggest ones and see which ones are best for what and for whom.

Google’s search capabilities are still second to none, and offer personalized results if you’re signed into a Google account. This means, for instance, you can search for “Bob Smith” and Google will show you the contact information for that person from your phone, among other personal searches.

However, it also involves the slightly darker side of Google: tracking you for more personalized results.

If you’re invested in the Android ecosystem, Google becomes even better. Part of what makes Google so useful is how ubiquitous it is — searches from your phone can be viewed on your desktop, and all of the services interact really well.

Bing has grown from being joke fodder into a great search engine that everyone should give a second look, especially if you haven’t tried it in a while.

The first big thing that jumps out at you with Bing is how much is on the main screen. While Google adopts a minimalist approach by having only their logo and a search box, Bing features a new background image each day and a strip of trending news along the bottom.

If you find Google a bit Spartan, Bing is worth seeing for this alone.

In terms of search, Bing should be familiar to anyone used to Google. In fact, Microsoft’s Bing It On site claims that most people prefer Bing when they blindly compare the two side-by-side. This will be up to your preference, of course, but it is amazing how closely they’ve gotten Bing to Google.

A search for a single word brings up a box with its definition, related people in a box on the right side, related searches, and images related to the search. If you’re looking for a lot of info about something, Bing gives it to you all at once.

You can also spend credits to enter sweepstakes, buy Xbox Live memberships, or even donate to charity. You won’t be making thousands per month or anything, but it’s a nice bonus for searches you were going to do already.

Bing’s search is just fine for finding common, basic items, but it does pale to Google when looking for specific issues. Many people report poor results when trying to find specific troubleshooting help (especially on forums) on Bing, while Google does a better job of searching through a site’s text and finding the answers to your problems.

Thus, if you want to make the switch, try using Bing as your basic search engine, and pull out Google for in-depth searches when you need something specific.

The Bottom Line

Google is still the better service, but to be fair, they’ve also had years to learn about what you search for. (Can you remember when you started using Google?) It’s not fair to expect Bing to be as good at tailoring searches to you when you’ve only used it for a few weeks. Given this handicap, Bing is actually pretty decent.

Justin talked a lot about what makes DDG great in his article, so I won’t be redundant. One big highlight, however, it that you can use bangs (!w is Wikipedia, !g is Google, for example) to search any website in one line.

So if you want to search Wikipedia for “pizza,” you don’t have to search for “Wikipedia” and then search on the page. Just type “!w pizza” and DDG will search Wikipedia for your term. It saves a ton of time, and once you get used to it you can search anywhere without leaving DuckDuckGo.

Google tries to be everything to everybody. Justin praised DuckDuckGo for instead letting users decide how they want to use it via settings. If you prefer taking some time to learn the tricks of a search engine instead of expecting it to do everything for you, give DDG a try.

Just like Bing, using DuckDuckGo will give you different results, which is a good thing. Escaping the bubble Google puts you in lets you see new sides of the Internet. Try DuckDuckGo for a week and see what you think.

Yahoo! search has fallen out of favor recently due to a lack of innovation, but it’s still worth a quick look. It’s worth noting that since 2009, Yahoo! search has actually been powered by Bing, meaning that it doesn’t have its own algorithms.

Yahoo used to be the leading search engineer, then Google took over, so much so, we now say 'Google it'. Note: Stay inventing, stay current.

Yahoo! Answers is still around. Here you can browse questions dating back several years on a variety of topics, or ask a question to get some help yourself. It’s not a particular reason to use Yahoo! search, though.

The Bottom Line

Overall, there’s really no reason to use Yahoo! search. The site offers a lot, but the search engine is nothing special. If you don’t want Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo as your homepage Yahoo! is worth a try, but don’t even bother with its search. It’s Bing with fewer features and more ads.

Ask.com, formerly Ask Jeeves, is a search engine that once focused on question-and-answer format work, similar to Yahoo! answers. Its search engine took a huge dive in 2010 due to failing to compete with Google, and is now outsourced to an unknown company.

The main Ask page features a search bar and several categories of questions below. The search, like Yahoo!, is nothing special and is littered with ads. Ask includes basic image, video, and news searches, but they’re nothing compared to the others discussed above.

Even the search results themselves are kind of ugly, with no thumbnails or distinguishing features. The only unique feature of Ask search is the Q&A on the right side of the screen, but it gets questions that are only vaguely related to your search term, so it’s not terribly useful.

The Ask Q&A center is okay; nothing you wouldn’t be able to find somewhere else on the Web. I couldn’t find anywhere to ask new questions, so I assume it’s only meant to be browsed for reference and not used as a forum.

Get Searching Now

So the Big Three come out on top, after all. We’ve seen that there’s no good reason to use Yahoo! or Ask, so it comes down to Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. As a general recommendation:

Use Google if you want a search that “just works,” want personalized results, need the most advanced features, or are integrated into other Google services.

Use Bing if you value the rewards program, want to see what’s outside of Google without going too crazy, search for videos frequently, or like a lot of information about terms you search for.

Use DuckDuckGo if you’re concerned about privacy, frequently want to search for terms on other sites, like to cater your search engine to work for you, or want to explore different parts of the Web by breaking out of Google’s bubble.

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I use mixture all at once to avoid tracking through my search history. How is this possible you all might ask? Easy! I use add-ons/extensions to get the job done!

But personally I use Duckduckgo, Startpage and Ecosia. These three combined give me the best worlds of Google and Bing with enhanced and customizable features for videos, images, instant and related searches, appearance, security/privacy (no tracking, no ads) and much more under the hood.

Hi Ben
Google technically has those features but
1 - if I type in "P-40 -aircraft" without the quotes the first four responses are all for the P-40 aircraft. It is broken so I will not use it
2 - google advanced search was very easy to find on the google home page right under/beside the box you type your query into. They have taken it off the page so I presumed they had scrapped it. Obviously they do not want people to use it. I tried it with the same question (find P-40 exclude aircraft) and the first page was 100% the P-40 aircraft. About as much use as a cigar lighter in hell

You dismiss Yahoo but it is the only search engine left that has advanced search features that allow you to search for a particular exact phrase and to exclude specific words
Those features make it my favorite because that eliminates a whole lot of garbage results
DDG is good and I will now have a look at the features you listed because DDG is currently my second choice

Doesn't Google have these features as well? You can use "words in quotes" to search for exact phrases and use a -minus sign before words you don't want to search for. They even have an advanced search page where you can enter these terms in separate boxes.

Ben is a Deputy Editor and the Sponsored Post Manager at MakeUseOf. He holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Grove City College, where he graduated Cum Laude and with Honors in his major. He enjoys helping others and is passionate about video games as a medium.